Web Only / Features » December 21, 2012

Football Coaches vs. the Common Good

Why, for example, do so many say nothing about multi-million-dollar salaries for coaches while simultaneously decrying the multi-thousand-dollar salaries of the far more crucial public employees who teach our kids and protect our communities?

Selective outrage speaks volumes in this country. For instance, deficit-focused anger about Medicare spending but not about Pentagon profligacy tells the story of a political establishment that too often prioritizes militarism over the health of its citizens. Similarly, rage about auto bailouts but not about Wall Street bailouts reveals a Republican Party that treasures Manhattan bankers more than Detroit factory workers. And, as has been powerfully illustrated this month, resentment about the salaries of cops, firefighters and teachers but not about the much bigger salaries of college football coaches exposes a culture that seems more interested in games than in addressing crises.

This is the microcosmic lesson of the University of Colorado's recent decision to pay a new football coach $2 million a year. The move—and the reaction to it—is a perfect illustration of America's values, or lack thereof.

Like many public universities, CU is spending big money on sports while citing revenue shortfalls as a reason to raise tuition rates. Meanwhile, as in most states, Colorado politics is dominated by conservative rhetoric decrying the allegedly exorbitant pay of public employees. This agitprop is ubiquitous despite numerous studies showing that public employees make less than their private sector counterparts.

In that context, you might anticipate a harsh reaction to Colorado's biggest university paying a public employee $2 million a year. And you'd almost certainly expect something other than approving silence in light of the school simultaneously taking out a loan to pay off the previous coach's multi-million-dollar contract.

But, of course, you would be mistaken. Because the millionaire public employees in question are football gurus—and not, say, teachers, highway patrolmen or prison guards—the media and political elite reacted to CU's move by exclusively focusing on what it means for football. Somehow, almost nobody raised the most disturbing questions of all.

Why, for example, do so many say nothing about multi-million-dollar salaries for coaches while simultaneously decrying the multi-thousand-dollar salaries of the far more crucial public employees who teach our kids and protect our communities? Where is the criticism of coaches' salaries from the same Fox News that this year slammed government employees, like firefighters, as “the true 1 percent”? And how are the same Republican leaders who decry public employee pay not making a stink about coaches, who are typically states' highest-paid public employees?

Why were none of these questions asked? Probably because the only answer to them that isn't utterly humiliating just doesn't hold water. Nope, sorry—paying the average college coach $1.64 million has not proven to be a lucrative investment generating revenue for the pedagogic mission of cash-strapped schools. In fact, that salary level often results in the opposite.

As USA Today documented, major football schools in 2012 “increased their athletics expenses at a greater rate than they increased their overall institutional expenses” on education. Additionally, 93 percent of Division I athletic programs spend more money than they generate, meaning money for education is often subsidizing coaches' multi-million-dollar salaries, not the other way around.

The real answer to the aforementioned questions, then, is priorities. Simply put, many taxpayers are happy to shell out lots of money for a good football team, believing that sports are of utmost importance, and that we therefore must pay for quality. Yet, many of those same taxpayers don't similarly value more important needs like health care, community security, education and infrastructure. They therefore don't think of those needs in “you get what you pay for” terms.

Ultimately, that mindset results in a nation where touchdowns are more important than teachers, pass protection is more critical than police, and coaches are more important than the common good.

David Sirota, an In These Times senior editor and syndicated columnist, is a staff writer at PandoDaily and a bestselling author whose book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now—Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything was released in 2011. Sirota, whose previous books include The Uprising and Hostile Takeover, co-hosts "The Rundown" on AM630 KHOW in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.

Do you know this for a fact? That there's a strict wall of separation between the atheletic budget and public funding? At the very least, I bet that public funding enables poor football players, the folks those coaches mold, to attend college through low-cost student loans and grants.

Posted by Surprise123 on 2013-01-22 12:30:08

D1 college coaches get paid out of the athletic budget, which earns money through sponsors and boosters and bowl appearances. So the tax payers aren't really paying these salaries.

Posted by Ross Gale on 2013-01-08 00:18:17

What is interesting about CU is that even when tickets are $17.50, the fans won't come. And when it's the Monday night ESPN game - only 84% of the seats will be filled. Colorado is not about sitting around on a Saturday but the president and regents want to pretend they own a NFL team. And Boulder is no LA or Austin - population is less than 80k.

It is stupid to pay a coach $2m per year and CU is even dumber since it has fired two coaches before their contracts expired. There was a time when presidents controlled the Athletic budgets and the state legislatures cared about state research institution tuition. Now we hire Presidents to kiss up to the press, donors, and legislatures and we let the jocks use all the money to further their selfish goals.

It will be interesting to see this and other programs retreat when the cable industry is crushed by new technology; leap frog and pay for view on your phone.You are correct in questioning our values - what is even funnier is to see how little the most avid fan contributes - most contribute nothing to the university or athletic assocation. Most people look to sports because it's easy to talk about, to think about, and to watch for entertainment; not a lot of brain stimulation and something most people can agree upon. Winning is good. Let's do it at any cost -it's not my money!